Racing resumes at Santa Anita

With bright sunshine in abundance for the first time since last Sunday, Santa

Anita's main track was declared fit and ready for live racing Saturday by

jockeys and horsemen alike. The Arcadia, California, track had been forced to

cancel its last three cards because of torrential rains and drainage problems

with the synthetic Pro-Ride surface.

"It's great to be back in action," Santa Anita President Ron Charles said

after conferring with a group of jockeys and trainers early Saturday morning.

"Our track superintendent, Rich Tedesco, has done a tremendous job getting

this track ready. Although we've had more than eight inches of rain this week,

it's draining much better now and we're ready to go this afternoon.

"The forecast is good for today and tomorrow and we're looking forward to

some great racing. As we've said all along, safety is our number one priority

and that's why we wanted to be sure and consult with the riders this morning and

get their blessing.

"A lot of people depend on our live racing here at Santa Anita, including of

course, our customers. We want to welcome everyone back we're hopeful we can get

back on a regular schedule.

"As we've said, we're going to be changing surfaces at the end of the meet in

April and we're just going to be very careful as to how we proceed in the event

we get additional significant rain in the weeks to come.

"As far as the turf course goes, it is still too wet to run on today, but

we're very hopeful we'll be able to run the San Marcos (G2) on the grass

tomorrow."

The Pro-Ride main track had also been closed for training over the past

several days, and several horsemen commented on how they adjusted to the

situation.

"I didn't even take Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike) to the track," said the

meet's leading trainer, Bob Baffert, of his champion juvenile male and leading

Kentucky Derby (G1) hopeful.

"But other horses were on the (dirt) training track. I've run a lot of horses

(47, winning with 11) the first couple of weeks, so they're pretty fit and a

little time off didn't hurt them at all. The ones that are running in a couple

weeks, I shipped to Hollywood (to train)."

"It didn't affect me too much," trainer David Hofmans said. "We did a lot of

jogging and tack-walking. It wasn't too bad. The horses probably really enjoyed

it."

"We knew the rain was coming for a week," trainer Dan Hendricks noted, "so I

think most of us got a lot of works and races in right before it happened. We're

going to start working tomorrow, so you're looking at an extra day or two or

three -- so I don't think it's that bad. We're back on it today and we'll be

working tomorrow, so as bad as the rains were, I think we made it through pretty

good."

Jockey Martin Pedroza gave the surface his endorsement after exercising

several horses over it Saturday morning.

"It feels good to me," the veteran rider said. "It's a little heavy, but it

feels good. It was firm and I didn't have a horse bobble, stumble or take a bad

step."

Tedesco outlined the efforts that his track maintenance crew had turned in

over the past week to deal with the deluge, and to get the surface suitable for

training and racing.

"We started working on the track last Monday at one in the morning and went

from there," he said.

Told that Charles had referred to him as a "hero" for his efforts, Tedesco

dismissed the praise, at least for the moment.

"Call me that in April," Tedesco said, laughing. "I've got a long meet ahead

of me."

Santa Anita's winter/spring meet ends on April 18.